Even though corporate giants Starbucks and Microsoft call Seattle home, this city in the Pacific Northwest has long been on the cutting edge of counterculture. Once dominated by grunge music and flannel shirts, the often rainy city on Puget Sound is overwhelmed with iconic mainstays of popular culture. The National Register of Historic Places lists more than 150 locations in the city, foremost among them the Space Needle, which rises 605 feet above the Seattle skyline. Don't miss Pike Place Market in the heart of town, where vendors toss yard-long fish into the air to great applause and small stands sell produce and flowers alongside cafes and brew pubs. Trendy bars, coffee shops, boutique hotels, Asian markets, and unusual attractions such as the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum make Seattle a neverending display of stimulation. For a different sort of view, walk to the docks and hop on a ferry into the Sound, north of the islands, or even all the way to Alaska.